Jamie Marks Is Dead

"Jamie Marks Is Dead" admirably refuses to hew to conventional horror tropes and is acted with integrity by its young performers, but the film nonetheless has a nagging pulse problem.

It is likely to test the patience of many viewers.

Temperate in tone but screaming with subtext, "Jamie Marks Is Dead" climbs above the current glut of supernaturally inclined entertainment by dint of a hushed unease that permeates almost every frame.

The film uses its phantasmagoric conceit, a sickly-hued poetry, and eerie sound design to build metaphors for closeted homoeroticism and melancholic unfulfillment.

Writer-director Carter Smith got his start as a successful fashion photographer. But you wouldn't know it from the murky look of this generic thriller.

The potentially ludicrous story is handled artfully enough here to cast an eerie but not off-putting spell throughout, though the ultimate point is more than a tad murky, and the desired poignancy doesn't fully come across.

It may have more brains behind it than The Ruins, but hopefully Smith can find material truly worthy of his technical talents with his next feature.

Unpredictable, atmospheric and enigmatic. This isn't your average coming-of-age film which makes it all the more refreshing, unique and un-Hollywood.

A nifty little sleeper in the vein of DONNIE DARKO.

It's a film that I liked more when no one was speaking, getting into the atmosphere of this world without having to deal with the awkward plotting within it.

Writer-director Carter Smith sets a brooding, chilly atmosphere, but he also writes opaquely vague dialogue and includes in a subplot involving Adam's mother (Liv Tyler) that goes nowhere.